While they may not be as powerful as U.S. political action committees, there’s a new form of campaign fundraising in Canada that works on the same keeping-up-with-the-Joneses rationale as the American campaign behemoths.

The newest one, HarperPAC, has been launched in response to the left-wing group Engage Canada.

“The inspiration for a lot of this came from the fact that the left has been doing this provincially and now federally and we had to respond,” Stephen Taylor, HarperPAC’s spokesman, told iPolitics.

The Conservative strategist who single-handedly created the #BoycottTims social media campaign has launched a new project, this one meant to influence a much larger outcome.

While Engage Canada may have a similar mandate, Taylor’s political action committee is the first to include PAC in its title.

Engage Canada calls itself a non-partisan grassroots organization, despite being run by former Liberal and NDP strategists, and its intent, which is to make the Conservative party “unelectable.”

Political Action Committees are popular fundraising mechanisms in the U.S. and now, thanks to Taylor, that style has entered Canadian politics. In the U.S., PACS are used to pool campaign contributions from donations to fund campaigns for candidates, or to rail against opponents without being legally linked directly to a candidate.

The U.S. Federal Election Commission defines a PAC as “a committee that makes contributions to other federal political committees. Independent-expenditure-only political committees (sometimes called “super PACs”) may accept unlimited contributions, including from corporations and labor organizations.”

In Canada there are few, if any at all, legal restrictions on where a non-profit corporation without charitable status can raise its funds. Non-profit corporations in Canada do not have to open their books to anyone the way that political parties are obliged to. While there are reporting requirements for groups that spend money to advance a viewpoint during an election, there is no restriction on how much third party groups spend outside the election writ period and no obligation to reveal how much money is spent or where it goes.

In a press release, Taylor describes HarperPAC as “a group that aims to defend the interests of everyday Canadians against the tide of cash from professional leftist agitators and big union bosses that has been earmarked to take down the Conservative government.

“Unions in Canada have amassed a war chest of millions and plan to relentlessly attack Stephen Harper’s Conservative government. We are leveling the playing field.”

“Justin Trudeau represents dangerous and unpredictable change, while Thomas Mulcair’s NDP is eager to implement the same disastrous economic formula that ruined provinces for whole generations,” Taylor says in the release.

According to Taylor’s release, “HarperPAC will raise money from concerned Canadians from every corner of the country to push back against such attacks. The group is purchasing advertising to inform Canadians of the important choices they face on election day in October.”

HarperPAC’s site shows the group’s mandate, along with a quote from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and an opportunity to add your email to a list to “fight back.”

Also on the site, are photos and short bios of eight “advisory council” members, which consist of former chiefs of staff, former senior staff in the Harper government, and also the former Attorney General of Alberta.

Shortly after the site launched, Taylor tweeted a link to the group’s very first Trudeau attack ad.

This isn’t the first private group to launch a campaign aimed at fundraising in support of the Conservative government. In March, iPolitics reported that the Conservative Party of Canada’s former executive director, Dan Hilton, set up a new organization called Conservative Voice to raise money and promote the government, while bypassing the legal limits on fundraising faced by political parties.

In an interview with iPolitics’ Elizabeth Thompson in March, Hilton said Conservative Voice is “simply a group of people who are trying to level the playing field and make sure that the right’s perspective is adequately represented in papers and the media.”

CONS are clones of the the U.S. Republicans. There’s NOTHING Canadian about them. Austerity for citizens while the corrupt fat cats invite their friends/PIGS to feast at our public trough! I’m a precariously employed citizen not affiliated with any union and I will FIGHT BACK against fascism and the constant looting of our treasury by corrupt politicians/senators no matter their political affiliation. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

sandra, don’t be such a secretive shiksa ….. tell us who you will be going to bed with in the next election…. Chippendale Justin or Mountain Man Mulcair … now that we know you are fighting mad against CONS and U.S. Republicans ….??!!!

So, by “level the playing field”, I presume he will propose making hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars available to the Liberals and NDP to counter the hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars spent on partisan advertising for the Harpercons over the past 10 years?

When you’ve got the Billion$$$ taxpayer subsidized CBC shilling and supporting Justin Chippendale Trudeau and snidely attacking the Conservative government, it’s tough to level the playing field …. and then there are all the media maggots who spawn on any slight story to attack Harper ….. soooo obvious

I forgot – only over 90% of the media in Canada supported Harper last time. I know that isn’t enough for Dear Leader ™. If you haven’t watched CBC in the past several years, it has become ridiculously Harper-friendly. All softballs to the gov’t shills (you know – the really excellent, highly accomplished people like Paul Calandra and Pierre Poilievre – lol) and often very tough cross-examination of others. They know who is currently buttering their bread (and which party has the board of directors completely stacked).

Then again, likely a little too involved for the likes of you. LoL.

Just think of the incredible things your Dear Leader will do when he returns to his incredible career in the private sector – you know, those couple of months he spent in a mailroom.

Agreed, the CBC probably has to be cut back to news radio, radio comedy and producing a few good relevant topical TV shows… It can do that without a national TV broadcast network, and with massively expanded Internet presence. The extra money raised by firing softballer interviewers like Mansbridge can make sure everyone has good Internet.

What was it Stephen Harper said about the CBC, Bill? Oh yeah, he said, “First we bring them to their knees. Then we restructure them.” Harper has cut $115 million from the CBC budget since 2012. The CBC has cut 2,000 jobs. Yeah, Bill … sooo obvious – to everyone except you.

Ruthless persecution and exclusion of any donor to any such “HarperPAC” is coming. A whole ‘nother round of BDS. There’s a big difference between raising money to defend the helpless, and raising money to attack the helpless.

Harper has been campaigning since 2006 so why is any of this new? All the RoboCONS do is campaign and denigrate their opponents. Will be soooooooooooooooooooooo glad to see the back of them and hopefully they will disappear like Mulroney’s Cons did. Good By and close the door when you leave so you can’t get back in!

Conservatives trying to level the playing field – what a laugh that is. Conservatives exist to tilt the playing field to the corporate agenda that favours the wealthiest elites. They quite literally take form the poor and give to the rich. Now that people are seeing through their twisted false ideology, they need to try to hoodwink the masses once again with gobs of rich peoples money.

“The inspiration for a lot of this came from the fact that the left has been doing this provincially and now federally and we had to respond,”. What kind of clown is this Stephen Taylor? A big one, or a stupid one or both?

It was “Stevo” himself as president of the Nation Citizen Coalition who went to the Supreme Court to challenge the restrictions of “third party” money.

And lost. And ever since, has been wearing that loss as a chip on his shoulder. They’re all worked up about the unions, because they saw how that group was able to help sink an already losing candidate. Meanwhile, they’ve spent over a billion of our dollars on their own promotion.

But do remember, these Cons probably have more money in North America than all other parties combined (save Hwood celebs). And as the electorate is fairly stupid and self-interested, I never count the Cons out. (Oh, and they cheat.)

This is going to be fascinating. http://www.leadnow.ca is leading a very effective cross-party, boots-on-the-ground internet campaign that is growing rapidly. Mobilizing the ‘under 40’ massive majority. ABC – Anyone But Conservative.